>>. >> i'm alex wit for tamron hall. the anger and outrage from republicans and democrats at house speaker john boehner after he postponed a vote providing $60 billion in relief. speaker boehner's surprise move came after the house approved the fiscal cliff deal. member members hit hard are especially furious. >> we cannot believe that this knife in the back was delivered to our region. >> emergency and disaster means emergency and disaster. >> this is the most disgraceful action i have seen in this house. >> we have been devastated. i hope the speaker will bring this to the floor as quickly as

possible. >> victims of sandy, many still homeless are hoping to recover and more outraged. >> it's a shame and a tragedy because they put politics before people. >> we are one community out of many. there a lot of people that are looking for aid that are displaced like myself and that would help us mentally and we are disappointed they couldn't come to a conclusion. >> just a few hours ago, president obama said in part the senate passed this request with bipartisan support, but the house of representatives refused to act. pass it without delay for our fellow americans. right now we are waiting a news conference by chris cristy and we will keep a close eye on that, but as we await it, kelliy o'donnell is live with that. we have speaker boehner's office

saying the speaker is committed to getting the sandy relief bill passed, but when? >> in talking to aides, they say they want to reassure members it will be his first priority in the new congress that begins tomorrow at noon. part of what has made this so painful and erupted with such surprise is that members of the house thought they would be voting on it before this congress ended and in part because you have seen how it can be difficult to get things done. after the senate worked to make it happen and part of the reaction you are seeing is what some call betrayal. a strong and personal word and that's what they are saying. feeling misled and they thaud they would be able to get this aid to the northeast, but so far it's not going to happen. part of this political distance takes place. $60.4 billion and new spending

at a time when the big argument that is happening is about trying to reduce spending and the deficit. it's sort of looking at a ledger versus looking at the real world consequences that are happening in people's lives in the northeast. some officials point out that fema is currently funded. has money to disburse, but this package goes beyond fema and there hurt feelings and a sense of being left in the cold literally. we are not sure how it will play out with the governor of new jersey and his position within the republican party coming out to speak. the president weighing in and so many members of congress. will there be a break? we are not sure, but everyone is talking about it. >> lots of passion. >> you have to wonder if everyone is on the same page. didn't representative kantor say he was 99.9% sure this was going to be brought to a vote and if it didn't happen, was it because of all the other stuff added in?

there was like $150 million for fisheries and $2 million for a new roof? is that the hold up? >> there was a wariness when there big spending bills that are titled under very real, very necessary concerns like an emergency and a disaster. what happened overtime is very often those are the bills that other things get stuck to. it may be spending that the government on another day without this kind of an emotional connection would say no to. maybe they are not so critical to the things that are not critical. that is an old washington way of doing things. there is that concern. all day yesterday the question was could they find a way to cut spending in the fiscal cliff drama? we are hours away from that and now this. will the emotional appeals and the real world consequences be

loud and forceful enough to get them to consider before noon tomorrow. if he doesn't, a new congress has to act and they start all over again. when they are motivated they can move quickly, but it would be a delay if they don't do it before noon tomorrow. >> thanks, kelly. this is the one who crafted the bill. first up with a welcome to you, sir. i know you and your colleagues and the delegations will meet about an hour or so again. what are you going to say to him? >> i don't think the new jersey democrats are invited. this is a new jersey moment though. time to take off the gloves. i believe boehner is speaking sincerely when he said we will get this done as soon as possible in the next congress. we get sworn in tomorrow, but we need the help right now.

that was a commitment. he could not deliver. i can't deal with the schizophrenia within the leadership of the within party. we should all be on this. it took us a very short period of time to respond to katrina. $10 billion on a voice vote. mind you. then another the democrats and republicans. they did everything we asked them to do and not only to the republican leadership, we think it's time to act instead of playing games. let's put it off. many congress men have gone home until tomorrow. we don't even have votes that have this. we will not have it this

congress regardless of how we go up and down. >> for folks suffering through this, one more day is painful. with that said, it is described as pushing the reset button when you address it with 113th congress. what kind of delay are we talking about? a week? a day, hours? how long long until it is passed? >> i hate to talk about it, but the fact is that we can get it done in two weeks. we talked about putting it in immediately and the new congress being sworn tomorrow and working with the governors. the governor has to be beside himself on this. they did everything requested of them and the three major governors in connecticut and new jersey and new york. to be here today it was seen as prejudicial. we are donor states. we contribute a lot of tax money

to the federal government. we are doing our duty and the obligation. the fact is that the response is not here. it's a lame excuse to say we just did the fiscal problems. we have that before us for many, many months. that is lame to use that as an excuse. this is strictly politics and the people of connecticut, new jersey, and new york and other states that are involved should be darn right angry. we need to channel the anger into action and do it as quickly as possible since we have nothing left but the 113th congress. >> you talk about the fiscal cliff. two months from now with sequestration. that was even handled entirely. thank you so much. watching closely. the fiscal cliff bill now happens in hawaii where he completes the holiday vacation he had cut short. he had a new video put up on you

tube. >> thanks to so many of you. you made your voices heard. we stopped that middle class tax hike. >> the averted cliff was enough to send the stock market higher. last night's vote fell along party lines with 85 republicans voted in favor and that includes house speaker baner who split from eric kantor who voted yea. passage continues to come from both sides of the aisle. >> at the end of the day it was house democrats who fuel-injected adult supervision and a sense of compromise and solutions. it was house democrats who stopped us from going off the cliff. >> that led to the policy of where we were going to be if we didn't pass it or where we would be if we did. it was like eating a you know what sandwich to vote for this. to me it was a rite of passage

to this quarter. >> chris and lois, senior political writer for politico. ladies for with you, lois. here's what they said on yesterday's vote. let's take a listen. >> there were a lot of conservatives in the caucus in the house who hate the bill and for good reason. this is a complete surrender on everything. >> do you think this could end up backfiring on the president? perhaps set him up for more fierce push back from republicans? now it went down? >> i don't know about that, but i don't think anybody got anything out of this. they did push the can down the road and now they are going to vote on additional cuts. i think 12 billion in cuts. i think the truth of the matter it this produced very little revenue and the only person who got anything out of it was the president's political operation

and he was able to fulfill a promise that said higher taxes on the wealthy. it's not generating any income at all. >> to the extent that something did get done, who gets the credit? is it the vits president who went on capitol hill or leader mcconnell or someone else? >> a lot of credit goes to even vice president biden and other republicans and democrats both in the house and the senate who i think came to terms with the reality that it was better to pass something than let the country go over the cliff. the problem is the winners and losers are a nice debate to have, but we will be right back at the game in about two months with far greater consequences than the fiscal cliff had because we are talking at that point the debt ceiling and sequestration and the continuing resolution that keeps the government functioning. when you add that together and the politics we have seen, it

doesn't bode well for what the future holds for the next round of these types of talks. >> it seems like this is just par for the course and how business gets done to whatever degree it is being accomplished. we have grover norquist who said republicans did not violate his pledge and he stood up for those who voted again. let's take a listen. >> it's 157 voted against the deal. were they against cutting taxes for almost everybody? no. they wanted to cut taxes for everybody. they are mad there was no spending restraint and taxes went up. >> while vote are for the measure, they voted against the anti-tax orthodox for the first time in decades. did this deepen the party's ideological divide? >> there is clearly a civil war going on in the republican party in terms of personalities and you saw between boehner and

kantor and others. in terms of the policies. they have not come to terms with the fact that you are talking about solving the big problems and the debt and the deficits and you have to have revenue on the table. this is the dilemma they face. until they get that under control, you are continuing to see this divide to define who they are. >> i mentioned that we saw this flit and speaker boehner who voted in favor of the bill. it was brave for the speaker to vote on the bill? in the 15 minutes of voting, he got up there in the one minute and cast his vote for yea. >> i think john boehner has the

most unenviable job in washington. he is one of the members that are now coming to the realization that fighting over taxes is passy. they have got to kind of revufl their deck and realize it's not all about taxes. they have to find an argument to go back to the president. they are trying to do that with more revenue. the civil war with boehner is the head of one faction that said hey, let's be practical and figure out how to do this. this tax argument is getting old. >> i'm sure we will be talking with you again, probably about this too. thanks so much. we have developing news from new jersey as governor chris cristy is holding a news conference right now. he is calling the house's failure to hold on sandy aid

unprecedented. >> there is one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims. the house majority and their speaker, john boehner. >> we will have more on the governor's comments and adam schiff who serves and while the fiscal cliff deal is not perfect, itty prevents a body blow to the economy. we will have an update on hillary clinton's condition. find us at "news nation." where is flo? anybody know where flo is? are you flo? yes. is this the thing you gave my husband? well, yeah, yes. the "name your price" tool. you tell us the price you want to pay, and we give you a range of options to choose from. careful, though -- that kind of power can go to your head. that explains a lot. yo, buddy! i got this.

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>> it's absolutely disgraceful.

i have to tell you. this used to be something that was not political. disaster relief was something you didn't play games with. now with the current atmosphere everything is the subject of one upsmanship. >> chris cristy is speaking now in trenton and you can hear the frustration in his voice for that which was not accomplished with the sandy aide package. we will get more on that in a bit. now that the cliff is averted, we have the debt. both sides are digging in for that fight ahead. >> save your powder for the debt ceiling fight. we have leverage to make this president face up to the fact that we are spending our way into oblivion. >> while i will negotiate over many things, i will not have another debate with this congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that

they have already racked up. >> joining me now is adam schiff from southern california. thank you for joining us. we have speaker boehner and he said now the focus turns to spending. the american people reelected a republican majority in the house and we will use it to hold the president accountable for the balanced approach he promised. there at least two big fights ahead. the debt ceiling and the two-month delay. you heard senator lindsay graham saying they saved their powder. are they expecting a tough fight ahead? >> the fight cannot be over the debt limit. it can be over the resolution to effectively shut down the government. it can be over the sequester. those are powerful incentives to work together, but we can't continue to hold the country's economy and full faith in credit costage in russian roulette.

the president really has to stand his ground on this. let's fight over the other things, but not put the economy at risk by threatening the full faith and credit of the u.s. government. that's irresponsible. >> the senator was on "morning joe" and said republicans have to be willing to do whatever it takes in the deficit fight. let's take a look at that. >> a temporary disruption because we have to furlough and close down national parks and not cut the grass on the mall. that's not optimal. it's disruptive. but a hell of a lot better than the path we are on. >> how didify find elements that go into shut down? >> it's hard on the house of representatives. they have seen it is possible to get to a compromise in this senate and there were leaders on

both sides willing to at the last minute and none the less get to yes. the house is a whole different story. you have this internal war going on within the gop. you have nobody really running the conference and that's a problem for all of us in the house. if they can't get their act together and we don't have a good negotiating partner in the house, we have to go through what we did with the fiscal cliff where the senate takes the lead and reluctantly at the end the housing puts up a vote that they expect the democrats to pass. that's not a good way to do business. i don't like to hear the senator or others talk this way. i would rather have them talk along the lines of let's find a reasonable agreement and a compromise and let's not go up to the brink again. we ought to be able to do this. we ought to be able it do this. >> who has the better leverage going into this next part? democrats or republicans? >> i think the leverage is

equivalent on all sides. we both need each other to run the country. it's evenly divide and will thab way for sometime. if the gop wants to shut down the government as they did in 1994, they have that opportunity. it didn't work out so well then. i don't think it's a good strategy now. both sides can play the game. i think the american people are fed up and tired with it. we can't continue to go through these brinksmanship exercises and severely inhibit recovery. i hear from my constituents and why can't you work? we have to and why can't you? >> that's a good question to be asked. representative, many thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> fly by signing. a fiscal cliff bill is set to be flown to the president in

hawaii. we will get a live report from honolulu. what happens next? nbc's team calls it triple jeopardy. three big dates to keep an eye on at "news nation."

. >> shock new estimates of the true death toll in syria. in the 22 months since the conflict began, at least 60,000 men, women, and children have been killed. the un figure is far higher than estimates fighting the regime of the president and today activists report an air strike killed another 30 people. the agency said about a half million syrians threat the

conflict. stocks are up after the fiscal cliff was a voited. how long will the rally last? justin bieber responds after the papparazzo was killed after taking picture of his car. details around the "news nation." speck out our tumbler page you will find behind the scenes pictures including the teen's new years resolutions.

jackie is joining us live now. we love the good feeling, but how long do you think it's going to last? >> hi and happy new year. we definitely got a rally on our hands and that's because of this deal coming out of washington.

it does a few things for wall street. it sets a thresh hole for the bush era tax cuts higher than where the president wanted it to be. it provides clarity to the estate taxes and other issues. it is easing unsrpt, but on the flip side regarding what we are seeing, we have the debt ceiling and spending cuts to come. you have a chance for a few mini cliffs ahead of us as we have done this can kicking. in terms of the market rally and will it continue? it's tough too say. we will see the strength continue for a while and that fates when we hit the road bumps. >> we know internationally speaking, things were higher. japan and china, it was better for them. what about in terms of what else they were looking forward to? >> of course we will be looking at friday's jobs numbers. that will be important to see how the overall economy is doing and data points will be key.

we have been watching housing and positive signs that the housing recovery is happening. we will be watching blips to see if the economy is on track. fourth quarter earnings will be big as well. they take the outlooks down and it will be interesting to see how the numbers play out. >> it sure will. jackie, it's a new year. a little more coffee and we will be good. as we pointed out, the current fiscal cliff deal puts off several issues to another day. seth up a triple threat just too short months from now. we have the fight over raising the nation's debt ceiling that comes in late february or early march. march 1st, congress will have to deal with the sequester of the automatic spending cuts that have been put off. just a few weeks later, the continuing resolution on the federal budget runs out. that could lead to at least a partial government shut down.

joining us now live with a happy new year to you. i guess we will start with the debt ceiling. why not tackle this first. it has been building for a while and a major sticking point in the negotiations. how does the make up of the final deal change the way this is likely to play out? >> a lot of democrats were upset that the president went with this route because they felt like the tax cuts were something that was leveraged and they could have used to offset some of what we are going to see with the debt ceiling and those other things we mentioned there. this brings up all of these things all at once. while it's a short-term victory for president obama on those things, the spending cut issue will continue down the road and there is not a good relationship at all between speaker boehner and president obama and there is the factor of the house conservatives that something has to get through the house and it

just looks like we are heading for one more time, another stalemate or roadblock unless something changes. >> that's become the norm. you know that congress hasn't passed a budget on time in years. when this resolution expires in march, what's going to happen? are we going up to midnight of march 1st and all that again? >> i hope not. we are working new year's eve and new year's day. it wouldn't surprise me. there could be something that changes. i don't know if president obama has leverage. he hasn't been asked what he is going to do on the debt ceiling. he said i am not going to negotiate and i am not playing those games. what does that mean? is he going to use the fringe ideas previously of the 14th amendment and bring it up to say he is bypassing congress or throw out a trillion dollar platinum coin? this is where the conversation is at this point. the debt ceiling is something

congress has to vote on unless president obama does something we have never seen before. >> and republicans as we read the bottom of the screen, they are vowing to use the debt ceiling as leverage. is that going to work? do they have that leverage? we spoke with adam schiff and he said everybody has a little bit of leverage and everybody has to give a little bit. >> depends on what you mean by work. work for who? is it going to work to hold up a process where maybe they get more spending cuts? perhaps they will get more spending cuts in that respect. will it work for the party brand nationally? i'm not sure it will. the brand has taken a big hit with the debt ceiling fight and this one. i'm not sure it can get much lower nationally. for those numbers, they are not at risk unless they voted for that measure last night and

would be at risk more of a primary. they don't have to worry about national elections. that's not what their concern is. on the politics, i'm not sure it works for everybody, especially house republicans on whether or not they extract spending cuts. it may work and the president said he will give some spending cuts. he hasn't specified which. there hasn't been much movement by democrats in particular on long-term debt and deficit and how they are going to take down this massive debt in the country that absolutely has been an issue. you saw it in the 2010 elections, but in the 2012 election, a little bit different story. there is a big difference right now between what you see a majority of the house that includes democrats and a majority of the majority which is only republican who is don't see the same way as even the majority of the entire house or of the country. >> many thanks.

>> thanks. >> less than 12 hours after declaring victory, president obama is back in hawaii enjoying the rest of his family vacation and joined them after he landed shortly before 5:00 a.m. local time this morning. let's go to kristen welker in honolulu. i hope you didn't have to get up before dawn for that. >> i was with him. got in at 4:00. >> maybe you got to sleep a little bit on the plane. the president was ready to sign the fiscal cliff bill and took off and went after the vote. when does he get to use the pen of his? >> that's what we are trying to find out from the white house. right now they are not giving any guidance on how he is going to sign the bill. we expect it to happen and expect to get guidance later today, but there two options. president obama could sign the actual paperwork so the paperwork could be flown out

here to hawaii or use the auto pen. that is a tactic he has taken twice in the past, but has been overseas when he used it. some people have a problem with it and question the constitutionality and it's not an actual signature. it's an automatic signature. those are the two options. we are trying to figure out what the specifics are. the white house is working behind the scenes to figure out how it's going to unfold. >> the president is not exactly off the grid. as we mentioned, he issued that statement on the hurricane sandy relief bill urging congress to act on that. is this an issue he might have to take up and considering what we have been talking about, are we missing the other pressing issues? >> i wouldn't be surprised. he has been talking to folks about that today. he reached out to chris christie and they had a conversation about the sandy relief package. he reemphasized the fact that he thinks it's important and this

bill gets passed. he has been in close contact with governor cuomo of new york. he has been talking about this with people who are concern and not only the folk who is live in new york and new jersey, but lawmakers are who are expressing anger that it didn't move through the house. they live in the areas that were most deeply affected. peter king who is from new york had harsh words for speaker boehner. speaker boehner's office released a statement saying he is dedicated to moving it through by the end of the month. we will have to see if that happens and there is a lot of pressure on him to do that. in terms of the other things they will be focused on, he still has to name a number of his cabinet positions. one of the names that has been floated, normer senator chuck hegel and he got criticism for comments he made and president obama signalled that that

criticism has not dissuaded him. >> from honolulu, thank you very much. >> how is it possible that this is a political issue. we are here today and we can vote on this. the votes are clearly there. >> up next, more on the out rage over speaker boehner's decision to adjourn the house without passing sandy relief. just in, we will have that all for you next. at optionsxpress we're all about options trading.

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what are you saying to your constituents and the victims? >> it's one of the toughest things i have to do is look them in the eye and tell them they have to wait another few weeks to get the relief that is needed and for some and this is the hardest part and people have to understand because there different things being said.

there is money in fema and so on. for the small business owners, they will lose their business now. they will go out of business and there is no two weeks for them. they will be done. that is a hard pill to swallow which is why i have a big job ahead of me. that is to speak directly to speaker boehner and explain that he has got to bring this vote. >> you said publicly it was inexcusable that he hadn't. you are joining others from new york and new jersey. are you going to be that forceful to them? that it's inexcusable? >> i already have. i don't go back on my words. i don't say something on television they wouldn't say to the speaker directly. i am a forthright person and i believe in that suspect. it is an error in judgment and it is surprising because i think i got to know the speaker fairly well and i know where his heart

is and i know my initial discussions have been that he wants to do this. i think it's a combination of many things coming together. no excuses. i can't give him an excuse. this has to be done and there is no excuse. it's moi job to not delay any further. >> how long are you expecting? he said maybe a couple of weeks because you have to push a restart button when the 113th congress gets sworn in and you have to start the process over again. >> no question. this is a huge lift that when i say myself i speak on behalf of everyone from congress and everyone on both sides of the aisle. i don't want to make it sound like it is just me. there is a big effort. i can tell you that i personally

will be doing two things. making sure the speaker understands that not one more extra day can be wasted in bringing this vote and that to avoid extra days being wasted, we cannot start a process we know will be cumbersome and unrealistic. i mean we have to have $60 billion. this is not going to be a case where we get that. it's unacceptable. $27 billion is the bare bones minimum that they need to replace nood insurance and fema. that is not needed to rebuild new york and new jersey. those grants are absolutely necessary if you want to build. if you don't want to rebuild, say so. i don't think that's what the speaker wants to do. i know he wants to rebuild and he has to. i have to put his feet to the fire and press him and i believe that he is going to come through, but right now i can tell you i feel that the rug has been pulled out from under me and this has been an

indefensible error in judgment. >> michael graham, good luck with the meeting ahead. we will be waiting to see how it goes. >> hillary clinton has been speaking to staffers on the phone from the hospital where she is recovering from a blood clot found behind her right ear. it was discovered in a routine mri after she suffered a concussion as a result of a fall. the cheaf science and health correspondent has more on the secretary's condition. we said potentially life-threatening and in this case it's not. they are confident the thinning medications make it okay. >> she is on the phone making calls is reassuring. it's not life-threatening and it didn't become a stroke. if the blood clot was not dissolved, blood could leak back into the brain. that would cause stroke-like symptoms or a stroke itself and

she would have trouble speaking and clearly that's not happening. >> when she was first lady back in 1998, she had severe pain behind her right knew. she had a blood clot there. are the two at all connected? can they be? >> there is. this is a rare side effect. usually when they get a brain bleed, it's inside the brain. this is outside in a blood vessel. this happens and it is seen by the same mri that would see the brains there. that may have been the case with her. that might have been why she had this mri. the question is, people who have a propensity to blood clotting and some women in particular, yes, they are more likely to get this complication. >> we will keep a watch on her health. thank you.

a photographer is killed while trying to snap pictures of justin bieber's ferrari. that to whiches a look at the stories around "news nation." he was struck by on coming traffic on a los angeles freeway having just taken pictures of his parked sports car. bieber was not at the scene when the accident happened. he said his thoughts and prayers are with his family and they call for legislation to prospect celebrities, police, and paparazzi. >> attending an open house at the town of monroe. the school superintendent called this an important step in helping the community heal. classes for the sanny hook students begin tomorrow. in new jersey, they placed arm guards in all schools in marlboro township. it will be temporary while the board reviews security procedures. tomorrow the 113th congress convenes for the first time. do you think the new group of

lawmakers will be more effective? it's our gut check and you can join them on facebook. we are at face book.com/"news nation."

>> michele bachmann is sticking by the tea party agenda to cut spending. she resinned the portion of president obama's order that gives members a pay raise. in the statement she said in part at a time when families are cutting back, we should not increase government spending and add by giving them a pay raise. we need to begin with ourselves and i urge them to join me in this effort. in pennsylvania governor corbett is moving forward with plans to sue the ncaa over sanctions imposed against state over the

child text abuse scandal. they had a coarse of lawmaker who is raised objections to how money is being spent outside the state. the ncaa responded calling it an a front to all the victims and a set back to the university's efforts. it is time for the "news nation" gut check. a few hours left for the 112th congress with an all time low approval rating and being the least productive congress since the 1940s. what does your gut tell you? do you think the 113th congress will be more effective than the 112th? that does it for this edition of "news nation." i'm alex witt and the cycle is up next. i'm like...yeah, ok... little did i know that one week later i wasn't smoking. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking.

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. what the heck happened to